Nigeria take bronze

Goalscorer Aiyegbeni was Nigeria's best player

Third place play-off
Nigeria 1 - 0 Mali

Nigeria have defeated host nation Mali 1-0 in Mopti to win the bronze medal and third-place at the Nations Cup.

The decisive goal was scored in the 29th minute by striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni - one of many new faces in the Nigeria team for the play-off encounter.

After Lawal won the ball in midfield, some superb Nigerian flair got the ball past three Malian defenders.

Aiyegbeni was left in space and beat the keeper with a beautiful shot.

At half time, with neither team having played particularly well, it seemed as if the match would have little more to offer.

But Mali coach Kasperczak made a massive tactical change at half time and decided to go on an all-out attack.

As soon as the teams came back out, Mali began persistently raiding the Nigerian area and more than once the Super Eagles looked to be struggling.

Better finishing, in particular from Diarra, could easily have brought Mali back into the game.

They were also unlucky in the 56th minute when a volley from a narrow angle rebounded off the cross bar.

End to end

But as they pushed up, they left yawning gaps in defence, and had Victor Ikpeba not entirely missed the ball when presented with it unmarked with only the keeper to beat the match could have taken an entirely different turn again.

And the end-to-end drama continued right until the last minute, when only a header off the line by Nwankwo Kanu stopped a magnificent edge-of-the-box volley taking the game into extra time.

But Nigeria held on - their experience proving to be too much for Mali's greater enterprise and imagination.